ORGANIZED CHURCHES:

Organized churches are recognized by the presence of a Presbytery (i.e., a local ruling body composed of two or more Presbyters/Elders). Such churches may apply for membership in the FORC via application of the Presbyters. A local church is considered a member church when at least one member of the Presbytery of that church possesses FORC credentials.

CHURCH PLANTING:

Ministers involved in the task of church planting and desiring recognition by the FORC shall contact a local church within the FORC and establish a relationship with that church. An FORC church which becomes involved in such an endeavor shall be referred to as the sponsoring church. The minister seeking recognition by the FORC shall follow FORC recognition procedures (see BCO II, B). Once recognized, the Presbyter of the mission church shall be under the authority and direct supervision of the Presbytery of the sponsoring church. When the sponsoring church ordains, or installs, an additional Presbyter to serve with the first, the mission church will be recognized as a member church within the FORC.

ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP:

An associate membership with the FORC may be requested by a Presbytery in general agreement with FORC doctrine and sacraments. This membership must be approved by a Council (See BCO IV, B).

The Liturgical Authority of the Old Testament
By Rev. Dr. Robert S. Rayburn
July 20,1999

There is a scene in the film Dead Poets Society in which Robin Williams, playing a New England Prep School English teacher, begins a class by asking a young student to read the introduction to a text on English poetry. The student begins, but after a few lines, Robin Williams interrupts him and tells him that what he has read is all wrong. Rip out that page, he tells the student. The student smiles. Of course the teacher is joking. No. Rip it out! Rip that page out of the book. Well, one doesn't have to tell a class of adolescent boys more than twice to rip pages out of their textbooks. He rips the page out of the book and his fellow students do the same.

One of the features of Presbyterian thought and life, which ought most dramatically to distinguish it from the prevailing evangelicalism, is its view of the church’s children. That, in fact, even evangelical Presbyterianism is not clearly differentiated in this way is, in my judgment, one of the saddest and most dangerous consequences of the debasement of our theology in both pulpit and pew. I do not hesitate to say that in respect to the doctrine of covenant succession, that set of truths connected with the purpose of God that his saving grace run in the lines of generations, there has been such a debasement and that it has resulted in Presbyterian people being robbed of one of the most precious parts of their inheritance.

by Tommy Lee